Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2017

For example, “I just patented a new cell-phone technology that will double battery life for half the cost. Opportunity segmentation and competitive environment. List key competitors and alternatives, highlighting your sustainable competitive advantages, such as patents and trademarks. Marketing, sales, and customer experience.

Startup 65

Startup Writing Patents Competition 65

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage.

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

It’s why in this article I advise that people “market today not futures” because you don’t want your playbook in the hands of the competition. The reality is that a journalist who’s writing a story about you – a relatively unknown entity – wants to hear directly from the founders and/or the CEO.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

This can include: Fund raising, product development choices, sales, marketing effectiveness, competition, business development, M&A … whatever. You can write this as a narrative in 3–5 key bullet points. An obvious example is an annual budget and this usually is a large part of at least one of your annual board meetings.

Startup 226

Startup Slides Metrics News 226

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2013

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. What is the definition of a good business plan?

Sample 92

Sample Writing Startup Summary 92

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. An obvious example would be in sales. You’re also learning directly about the skills of your sales staff by observing them in action. A quick example.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

1) Expect Independent Channel Sales Reps To Perform Missionary Sales. Rationale: I cannot afford to hire a direct sales force. Fallacy: Third-party, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) representatives succeed once the sales process is defined, proven and documented. 5) Allow Partners To Write Your Agreements.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2011

But should you actually write one if you’re a startup, an industry figure (lawyer, banker) or VC? This is a post to help you figure out why you should write and what you should talk about. eCommerce is an enormously competitive search term. Do you have sales productivity software? By definition, you read blogs.

Blogging 373

Blogging Startup Writing Venture Capital 373

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 19, 2010

I’m writing this post as part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital but will file it under Sales Tips as well since it applies equally to both scenarios. This is true whether your at a sales meeting or at a VC firm. Regarding information asymmetry – take me as an example. Congratulations.

Venture Capital 318

Venture Capital Startup Sales Writing 318

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 21, 2012

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. What is the definition of a good business plan?

Sample 96

Sample Writing Summary Startup 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage.

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. For example: If you were to invest $41 million into a company (and one could assume that you owned between 33-50%) then the company is worth $82-123 million at funding. I acknowledged this in the article. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2012

I’ve wanted to write a blog post called “Mobile Second” for a long time to make this point more forcefully. They are more likely to be the “bottom end of the sales funnel” or in other words close to “point of purchase.” Try writing long reviews of a restaurant. They do both well.

Web 334

Web Mobile Startup Software Review 334

InfoChachkie

JUNE 4, 2012

As an entrepreneur, I helped create companies which achieved two IPOs and two trade sales totaling $385 million. Public relations at a startup is a sales process. Thus, you have negotiating leverage as long as a legitimate, competitive threat exists. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Outsource Ideas Technical Review 272

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage.

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 11, 2012

Tech Reporters: These individuals will write and edit informative and practical articles on a range of topics including Startups/Entrepreneurs, Gadgets, Mobile Tech, Tech in Entertainment, Gaming, Apps & Software, productivity, and cover breaking tech news. Will also report on local tech events in their respected area.

Technical Review 71

Technical Review Software Review Writing News 71

Berkonomics

AUGUST 30, 2018

They allow me to preview new devices and technologies before release so that I might write about and speak about them in my “Tech Trends” keynotes. Some great examples of second-to-market. Apple, for example, was nowhere near the first to introduce an MP3 handheld music player. My “way too early” story. Our test sites.

Artificial Inteligence 120

Artificial Inteligence Pricing Design Product 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2010

This is sad, since “how to write a business plan” is a frequent topic found in every business journal, and a common title in the business section of every book store. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually understand it yourself. What is the definition of a good business plan?

Startup 91

Startup Funding Sample Writing 91

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

File this under both Startup Adivce and Sales & Marketing Advice. Journalists don’t know enough about your company before the show, don’t have time for proper research, and you will be competing for their time afterward with 49+ other companies that want them to write about you. - Many other great companies are not. -

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2011

The reality is that there are far more accomplished candidates in the Republican primaries who could challenge Mitt Romney – Jon Huntsman , for example. But in order to stand out from the pack and differentiate yourself in competitive markets – in ADDITION to having a great product you need: 1. He speaks Mandarin.

Startup 289

Startup Press Software Marketing 289

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2014

These commitments should always be positioned in writing as promissory notes, or so-called bridge-loans, which convert to equity at a rate determined by later investors. It’s been around many years, in examples like small business groups or ethnic groups supporting similar efforts. Peer-to-peer lending. Micro-loans. IRA financing.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Capital Startup Funding 101

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

On myfab5, people rank their favorite places instead of giving them star ratings and write bite-sized reviews instead of writing long reviews. When talking to review site users, we found the top two reasons people don’t write reviews is because it takes too long and it is confusing.

Software Review 79

Software Review Technical Review Writing Startup 79

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2018

Jordan Glazier: For example, say you have a friend coming to San Diego, and they ask you where they should stay. Using travel as an example, we already are partners with all of the travel partners you could imagine, such as Hotels.com, Booking.com, Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, etc. What does that look like?

San Diego 159

San Diego Social Media Commerce Snapchat 159

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2009

I am someone who likes to interact with my Representatives and Senators, by way of writing letters, emailing, and what not. When I was listening, I made a point to try to do that, but when I did, I found I had to go to twenty sites to find the information I needed--whether that was to write a letter, send an email, or whatever.

Startup 100

Startup Writing Southern California Email 100

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

As an example, I was just reading a plan for a new dating app with a tagline of moving users quickly from the virtual world into the real world of offline dating. There are always new competitors who are planning their arrival tomorrow. Spend more time with people who can help, rather than be helpers.

Customer 57

Customer Custom Technical Review Software Review 57

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2013

These commitments should always be positioned in writing as promissory notes, or so-called bridge-loans, which convert to equity at a rate determined by later investors. It’s been around many years, in examples like small business groups or ethnic groups supporting similar efforts. Peer-to-peer lending. Microloans. IRA financing.

Startup 97

Startup Entrepreneur Equity Examples 97

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

You may have already found several articles, web pages, or books about writing the perfect executive summary. They all offer a list of requirements that might take 50 pages to address, but of course they ask you to write concisely. Your competitive advantage. Don’t kill your credibility by saying you have no competition.

Summary 55

Summary Writing Competition Metrics 55

Tech.Co

DECEMBER 12, 2017

Admittedly, that last part is an exaggeration but they were bad enough that I am writing this essay in the hopes that you will read it and not make these mistakes. Or their sales pitch?! You don’t need to list your competition in both places. Check out these examples: Q: What is your solution? The #EpicNovelFail.

Tips 70

Tips Startup Statistics Metrics 70

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

As an employee of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets from 1999-2003 and of the Indianapolis Pacers from 2003-2008, I learned first-hand from the likes of Rod Thorn, Byron Scott, Jason Kidd and Larry Bird about the importance of leading by example and keys to assembling a championship-caliber team. Any competition in LA? Events pay a listing fee.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I talked about this in the TWiVC video but I didn’t do a good enough job of writing it up in the summary notes in the post. Obvious examples include Chris Dixon, Keith Rabois, Aydin Senkut, Dave McClure, Chris Sacca, XG Ventures, Reid Hoffman and so on. But flip you must – just as in a sales meeting. Mobile app?

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 16, 2018

Without taking a dime of outside capital, the company has achieved impressive success in a competitive, SaaS market segment, landing companies such as Nike, Intuit, NASA, AutoDesk and PBS. The problem is that stakeholders, like marketing and sales, don’t know what the latest version of the roadmap is.

Venture Capital 115

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Santa Barbara SaaS 115

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

No, that IS NOT a competitive advantage - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 12, 2010 This is part 1 of the series: 5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches. Listening to first-time entrepreneurs talk about their competitive advantages is as predictably invalid as the local weatherman's 10-day forecast. Make it unique.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2010

As I naturally get asked all the time why we invested in Company A or Company B, I thought I’d just put forth my thesis in writing. I don’t intend either, Burstly has respectable and strong competition. He’s a natural leader, appropriately competitive, very customer focused and a pleasure to work with.

Mobile 282

Mobile Invest Company Companies 282

socalTECH

DECEMBER 15, 2010

For a big company, that might be through their own sales force, and for a smaller company it might be a small team which is operating the site themselves. We manage that competition through an aucton process. How is the competitive landscape is nowadays? For instance, they might be selling ad space directly.

OpenX 242

OpenX Advertising Yahoo Pasadena 242

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

The questions that a VC mulls before writing a check are precisely the questions you should be asking yourself. I like to use the example of a company I backed called MakeSpace because it’s such an easy an obvious market to understand. billion in sales and thus controls less than 10% of the market. Competition.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 10, 2010

“Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise: Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, Not uttered by base sale of chapmen’s tongues” . Patents held by startups generally have a limited ability to reduce competition. An example of design patent is shown at left.

IP 256

IP Patents Company Companies 256

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

Strictly for example sake I’ll take our mission at Upfront Ventures. But putting no time into anchoring your beliefs because you’re too busy executing sales, marketing, support, product & engineering is an easy recipe for leadership drift. I wanted to just write. I like writing. Conviction. I hate editing.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150